Tom Patri: Tiger Woods, Butch Harmon need to get back together

NAPLES - It is sad in some respects that often the human species, especially athletes, find it so very hard to go back and mend broken fences. We all have those relationships both professionally and personally we wish we had handled a bit differently. There have been times I have tried and the other party has taken a pass.

If I could plant one seed in both Tiger Woods' and Butch Harmon's brains, it would be for the two of them to break bread over a beer. Some teacher- student or coach-player combinations produce such high quality results, only to be sunken by egos that would not allow them to be reconstructed. David Leadbetter and Nick Faldo also come to mind.

If Tiger and Butch could ever sit down and bury the past, and agree to work together again, they could put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall in a big way. In my mind, the Woods-Harmon team was one of, if not the greatest ever combo in golf. Others like Faldo-Leadbetter, Nicklaus-Grout, and Jones-Maiden were all outstanding, but Woods-Harmon was a special team.

It will be interesting to watch Woods when the PGA Tour starts up on the West Coast. His season has ended, and he will have had the entire offseason to tell us "it's a work in progress," or "it takes time when you make swing changes." That is true, but he will have had ample time by then. If he comes out of the box flat at L.A. and San Diego, Tiger as we knew him could be a thing of the past. If he jumps out fast, he could run the table. It won't be a so-so, in-between thing, and it won't take long to figure out where his game is by then.

Can you imagine if, 25 years from now, we look back and we view Tiger, David Duval, and Ian Baker-Finch all in similar light, as great falls off the mountain top?

Can you imagine getting that close to the great Jack Nicklaus' record for majors won, only to be derailed and the ship never righted? How would golf history write that story?

Tom Patri gives lessons at the Quarry on Immokalee Road, but is at Friar's Head in New York until Dec. 1. Patri is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher. Visit Patri's website at www.tompatri.com or e-mail him at tpatri@mindspring.com.